By Courtney Irwin
For four days last week, School for Life extended their
usual role, educating children, to the education of their teachers. A workshop, held in Savelugu, 20km from
Tamale, sought to train 60 teachers from formal schools in the district, in the
use of School for Life’s methodology, in the hope that they will adopt these
practices in their own classrooms.
School for Life promotes the use of mother tongue literacy,
learning aids and active participation within the classroom through engagement
between students and teachers. These
approaches are used within School for Life’s own program to deliver
complementary basic education for out-of-school children in Northern
Ghana. Through a nine month functional
literacy and numeracy program facilitated by community volunteers, School for
Life graduates are able to enter formal school between grades three to
six. UNICEF has supported the program in
the Savelugu Naton district for two years, and is currently operating School for
Life classes in 30 communities. Deputy
Director of Operations, Alhaji Hussein Abdulai Ziblim, promoted the approach,
saying that “Children learn better in their mother tongue. We have tested this for more than 19 years
now.”
The workshop itself utilized many of the techniques that
School for Life promotes, relying heavily on participation and group work. “Children learn more in groups. They learn from each other, and we are trying
to impart this to them” explain School for Life District Coordinator Ibrahim
Issahaku.
In addition to the teachers, nine circuit supervisors from
Ghana Education Service were in attendance, with the aim of supporting the
teachers to implement the methodology.
They were particularly happy with the success of the program “The
participants have been very keen. The
facilitators are up to the task” they said “Now all that is left is for the
participants to implement this, and we will definitely do that!”
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